Asra Nomani, a close friend and colleague of Daniel Pearl — who was murdered in 2002 by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, an architect of the 9/11 attacks — discusses how she grappled with Pearl’s death years later while investigating his murder.

The writer visits a Zen temple in Japan, where he meets with a priest who has been exorcising the spirits of people who had drowned in the 2011 tsunami and taken possession of the living. A story about loss and Japan’s cult of ancestors.

Andrew O’Hagan, in the London Review of Books, recounts the disastrous experience of trying to ghostwrite the autobiography of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. (The publisher later released an unauthorized early draft of the book).

A triple murder investigation led by the FBI is potentially linked to Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Clandestine actions by the FBI leave the suspect’s friends and family members with more questions, and a community is left wondering: Could solving this case have prevented the Boston Marathon bombings?

Three Americans recount their experience of being held captive in Iran’s Evin Prison after unknowingly crossing the Iraq-Iran border while out on a hike. An excerpt from A Sliver of Light, a co-written book about their ordeal.

In 1982 three teenagers were found savagely stabbed to death near a lake in Waco, Texas. Four men were found guilty and two were sentenced to death. Were they guilty? Hall spent a year reporting this five-part series for Texas Monthly.

Richard Norris became disfigured after he accidentally shot himself in the face when he was 22. He successfully received a full face transplant with the help of Eduardo Rodriguez, a Baltimore reconstructive facial surgeon, but life after the surgery has brought up some unexpected burdens.

A profile of Dr. Willie Parker, who tends to the needs of women at the one abortion clinic open in Mississippi. Last week a federal appeals panel voted to block a Mississippi law that would have shut down the clinic.

Reporter Luke Malone talks to a teenager who, after realizing he is a pedophile, seeks help and starts a support group for people like him. “I asked them if they knew anyone like that, and a few weeks later I received an email. ‘My name is Adam,’ it read. ‘I’m 18 and non-exclusively attracted to boys and girls of all ages (particularly very young ones). I am the leader of a support group for non-offending pedophiles around my age… I would be very happy to talk with you.’” Warning: This story includes graphic details of child abuse.

Finkel tracks down the man known as the North Pond Hermit: Christopher Thomas Knight lived for nearly 30 years in a secret camp in the woods of Central Maine, stealing food and supplies from nearby homes. “I never felt lonely. To put it romantically: I was completely free.”

Aikins follows an urban rescue team in Syria: “The members of Civil Defense were attendants to the city’s trauma, one of the few first responders left to care for the civilians caught on the front lines in Syria’s largest city. They evacuated the injured, cleaned up the bodies, and fought fires. But what they were best known for — what they had become famous for in Syria and abroad — were the dramatic rescues, the lives they pulled from under the rubble.”

A freshman at University of Virginia is brutally assaulted by seven men at a frat party. When she tries to report it, she discovers a culture that is complicit in covering it up. Update:Rolling Stone’s editors are now raising questions about events described in this story—but exactly which parts remains unclear.

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